Zimbabwe heading for a Rwandan-style genocide?

Zimbabwe heading towards a Rwandan genocide
by Alex Matthews

Once upon a time there was an African country that after several years of instability seemed to be moving shakily towards reform and democracy. Its ageing despotic president had signed a power-sharing deal with the opposition that created a unity government that would precipitate a new constitution and elections.

Sounds rather like Zimbabwe, doesn't it? But I was actually describing Rwanda in early 1994 - only months before a genocide that would claim almost a million lives. While the Arusha Accords were being haphazardly implemented (but more often than not being ignored), fanatics in the countryside were setting up militia training bases.

Arms and military advisers were being flown in to train and equip these ragtag groupings. President Habyarimana's assassination in April 1994 was the catalyst for a hundred days of massacres, rape and torture.

Zimbabwe is in an eerily similar situation to the one that Rwanda was experiencing before its genocide.  After a decade of brutality and economic devastation, it is tempting to hope that Zanu PF's "partnership" with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shows that Zimbabwe is irreversibly on the road to recovery.

Sadly, however, what we see in Zimbabwe is nothing but a false dawn: a Potemkin peace designed to lure us into the same indifferent complacency with which the world viewed Rwanda in 1994.

The violent repression that has characterised Zanu PF's rule continues, flouting the provisions of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), the power-sharing agreement signed with the opposition in September. Zanu PF considers the unity deal after its defeat at the March 29 polls last year as a mere speed bump in its path of continued authoritarian rule - a speed bump which creates the illusion that it is prepared to accept reform and genuine democracy.

Don't be fooled. Activists, lawyers and MDC supporters continue to be unlawfully harassed and detained. Senior opposition leaders face death threats. Opposition members of parliament are being targeted with ridiculous criminal charges by a brazenly partisan police and judiciary. Five have already been convicted (MPs have to resign if they serve a jail-term longer than six months).

The Zanu PF militias that unleashed a wave of brutality on suspected MDC supporters as punishment for the 2008 election result, have been accused by teachers of setting up "terror bases" at schools.

Even more frightening (and chillingly reminiscent of the prelude to Rwanda's genocide when French weapons were despatched en-masse to Kigali) is the build-up of weapons in Zimbabwe.

Last month the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) revealed that in April 2008, Chinese arms (including several million rounds of ammunition as well as RPC7 rockets and mortars) destined for Zimbabwe reached to Luanda, Angola. It has been confirmed that the arms have subsequently reached Harare. Later, in August, an additional 53 tons of ammunition were flown to Harare from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 2008.

There's more. David Maynier, the Democratic Alliance's defence spokesperson, has revealed that South Africa is seeking authorisation from its National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to export ammunition to its neighbour. Maynier has been subsequently vilified by the ANC ruling party which seems more obsessed by how the opposition MP found out about the application than about what the arms will be used for should they be authorised for export.

President Mugabe has unleashed his military on innocent civilians before - in 1982 he used North Korean-trained troops to torture and massacre thousands in Matabeleland for their alleged support for Zapu, a rival anti-colonialist movement that he eventually forced to merge
with his own party.

His army's abysmal rights record continues, with Human Rights Watch recently exposing the army's invasion of the Marange diamond fields in November 2008 where it has subsequently subjected locals to forced labour, torture and murder.

Two South African MPs, Wilmot James and Kenneth Mubu, who returned earlier this month from Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission reported:

"There are reports from credible sources of increasing paramilitary activity in the countryside..."

They explained, "Under his [Mugabe's] personal control he has a paramilitary machine consisting of soldiers, thugs, the so-called war veterans and ZANU political commissars. There are the hit squads. The police also collaborate..." They also have reason to believe that in addition to the arms exports uncovered by IPIS, "Mugabe is talking to Venezuela, Cuba and Korea to fund a war-chest in preparation for the referendum and election following on the implementation of the GPA."

While Rwanda's genocide was powered by ethnic hatred, this was merely a pretext: the tragedy was deliberately orchestrated by a shadowy ruling clique which knew its power was in jeopardy, and which refused to sacrifice it at all cost.  So while ethnic tensions in Zimbabwe are no where near the levels of those in Rwanda in 1994, a similar intensity of hatred exists, as does the same desperate willingness for its rulers to do whatever it takes to remain in power.

The arms flooding in and the paramilitary training in the countryside are deliberate preparations for war - a war to be inflicted by home grown postcolonial imperialists on an innocent and undeserving citizenry so that Zanu PF's rapacious supremacy can continue.

We cannot ignore the warning signs. We know what happened in Rwanda in 1994. The world looked away while almost a million people were slaughtered. Will we let this happen in Zimbabwe?

Alex Matthews is a freelance journalist, politics blogger and editor of TheSoapbox.fm (http://thesoapbox.fm)

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responses to this article

the double wammy the anc govmnt is selling arms to zim and therefore will have directly contributed to this when it happens.....then these very same weapons and arms will then find their way back into sa and used in crime...... by onlooker on August 16 2009, 17:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Genocide is coming! The genocide you are talking about is within your imagination and wishes. You will get used to it that Zimbabwean people only need peace, unity and be left alone by people like you who thrife upon chaos of other countries. by Josh on August 16 2009, 17:55 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

In your mind. There will not be land for a small minority while the majority goes without. What is it with you that you are so obsessed with getting resources and subjecting locals to poverty. You come under the guise of human rights etc and rule of law. Yet you apply . .more a very primitive law, starve the population so that they can turn against their leaders. You make me sick, you pretend to love justice yet you are the unjust. God is for all. We will defend Zimbabwe by all means. . .less by N Moyo on August 16 2009, 19:25 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The shackled continent Moyo the majority don't own the land either, only a small ruling elite do. Why don't African leaders (sic) give title deeds to the citizens and give them access to collatoral and a way out of poverty? Maybe so they can manipulate and bribe them with . .more food parcels and promises? All the while blaming the West. What are you defending, the country is in ruins? Inflation? The rule of law? Democracy? Or your ego? Tick tock the Hague is calling another failed dictator... . .less by Frank Talk on August 16 2009, 21:15 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Shackeled Continent I have information on the ground, there are many people who now own it some who do not support Zanu, you have a problem of preaching what the foreign press has been saying without facts on the ground. Talk of Tittle deeds this is what the government wants . .more to do but there are those who had full benefit who want to see this thing fail at all costs. Why the resistance from the CFU on land reform. I defend principles which say we are all born equal before God( American Constitution) We can not have a minority class who in the first place displaced many people own the most fertile land. I had grandparents who were forced to leave their land and had their cattle confisticated. Or are you one with selective short memory, who chooses where history has to start and stop. Hague, did Botha, Smith go to the Hague, or is it easier to send blacks to the Hague? . .less by N Moyo on August 17 2009, 00:12 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

To N Moyo Your name indicates that you come from Matabeleland. If so, please can you provide more specific details about your grandparents loss of land and their cattle. Times, names and places please. The CFU was never resisting land reform. They offered . .more land and a mentorship programme which the regime rejected. It was the government which should have started land reform in 1980. It chose not to and you should know because zanupf even confiscated land belonging to zapu cadres who set up businesses straight after independence. All land had to be offered to government first and any land transfers had to have a certificate of no interest from the government. You did not mention that 47% of the land in Zimbabwe is communal land. The whites had 20%, not 75% as the big lie is so oftenm told. Resisted? They were violently attacked? Are they expected to lie down and be raped and murdered like some were? Mr Moyo, injustice should always be addressed. If people commit crimes, they should be brought to justice - without exception. What is going in in Zimbabwe is a horrendous crime against humanity, a genocide ....... or you are another blind, deaf and dumb zanupf fanatic. . .less by D Sibanda on August 17 2009, 06:02 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

To D Sibanda You should know that there was a constitutional clause to protect white farmland for ten years, and voting rights etc. Read the documents carefully and follow on with the land donor conference in the late 90's. Get Claire short's reply to the then . .more minister of Agriculture. Again on two things having Moyo as a surname does not qualify you to be from Matebeleland and your statistics on the land ownership are not true. Refer to arable land by region. Communal land by definition if you take the ref tribal trust lands you will get the picture. Injustice is not right in any shape or form. Especially when the so called defenders of the weak are raping the population through misinformation. At the core of the Zim issue is the land, I could go on to talk of Zidera or you are not well read and rely on heresay. Wise up . .less by N Moyo on August 17 2009, 12:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Decline and fall of Africa Africa has been disgracing itself ever since decolonisation. From Saviour Kwame Nkrumah to Thabo Mbeki. and from Rwanda to the Sudan. There is every reason why the worst should not now happen in Zimbabwe ... Mugabe still holds the key -- and the weaponry, . .more including that unlawfully supllied by SA. In 1965 I told some very racist Muslim students from Sudan (at a French university where I was a student) that by the end of the century apartheid would be forgotten, and that the genocide they were even then threatening in the Sudan against their nonMuslim compatriots would eventually place them in the position of the polecate of the world. But that was the Sudan. I did not dream that virtually the whole of Africa would prove itself so adept at genocide. So why not Mad Bob and his militia? . .less by s.n. on August 17 2009, 12:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

what are you proposing be done Mr Alex Matthews, an invasion?? Zim won't be invaded and have foreign laws imposed on it. Let the SADC do what it can and must policies were introduced by US,Britain.etc in 2001 which bankrupted Zim's economy and its people they can't pretend now to care. They did this with the aim of . .more giving Zim one solution to solve its problems and that's to donate their country to them. Sadly Mr Alex Zim won't be invaded by your sponsors,Obama,Hilary or those US troops currently stationed at the Botwsana/Zimbabwe border. . .less by ole' on August 17 2009, 13:04 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

ole' After reading some off the comments , I am amazed at the fact that the real issue that Zimbabwe 's downfall is blamed on the USA and UK . When are the people off Zimbabwe going to take responsblity for their part in the downfall off the country . . .more Productive farms have been taken away from White farmers and given to black farmers whot have destoyed the farmes . Who are going to blame for this .( USA / UK I suppose ) . SA Lived in isolation for many years . We built an infrutructure that is stiil in place today , so stop looking for excuses . As far as this war / genocide is concerned , if Zimbabwe can't sought out their on political C*** , thats their problem . . .less by Ruby on August 17 2009, 17:28 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Moyo Hey Moyo ....While Smith was running the country there was food , water an economy that worked . People had employment . Since the MADMAN has taken over , the people off ZIM have had none off the above . Perhaps you guy's should stop arguing about land . .more ownership and lease the land to people that will do something productive with it ...........FEED THE PEOPLE . .less by Ruby on August 17 2009, 17:40 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

ole' Don't invade!! Please ole' Please! Don't suggest an invasion!! The Zimbabweans forces will shoot the SANDF to pieces!! by JVR on August 17 2009, 18:10 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The Genocide is already happening... When a nation boasts a life expectancy of 34 years in the 21st century one can only logically conclude that there is a genocide in progress. As we speak. And it will get worse. Will SADC respond to a bloodbath in the region? I doubt it. by Belle on August 17 2009, 18:44 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The Problem is on Both Sides It's so easy to point at Mugabe and call him a monster. It's so easy to point at Rhodesia and call it monstrous. It takes no keen insight, wisdom, or imagination to do so. by TeeGee on August 17 2009, 20:05 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Continued from above... RHODESIA. To those of you heaping blame on white farmers for Zim being the country arguably most desperately in trouble in the world.... stop being so small of mind. Mugabe and his henchman do NOT care about you. They have been looting Zimbabwe for the . .more last 15 years (they weren't as brazen in the 15 years before that). These people are thugs. They will kill their own for profit, power, and safety. Period. They have no spirituality, no sacrifice, and no solution. MUGABE. To those of you who think Rhodesia was better than Mugabe -- that's only the case if you think money matters more than respect, rights, and decency. It probably WAS better for you, when you benefited from a system that had white farmers holding all of the arable land. Cecil Rhodes thru to Ian Smith and the bloody mess they created is EXACTLY what set the dismal standards by which Mugabe can rule this country for his own gain, with a clenched fist, even at the age of 85 (when he should be on his knees praying every hour of the day for what he's done). You see, the problem is on BOTH SIDES. They finally figured that out in Northern Ireland. I hope Zim figures it out too. . .less by TeeGee on August 17 2009, 20:06 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Continue from above... But I'm actually very worried that Zim will NOT figure it out. Just look at the debate above. Anyone who blames Mugabe without seeing what white rule did to this country is blind. Anyone who blames white rule without seeing that Mugabe is willing to kill . .more his own people....and that he played the race card in order to cling onto his power as it dwindled...is blind. And if you keep taking only one side of this argument -- while the average Zim dies before aged 40 -- honestly...step back and look at yourself. You are part of the problem! To give Zim a chance, and to deepen your sense of humanity, force yourself to take the other side of the argument. To find the solution to any tough problem, start by inverting. This is what saved Northern Ireland before it became a bomb hole. Who here can be a part of the solution...rather than trying to win a college debate while the people of Zim die. Can you? . .less by TeeGee on August 17 2009, 20:10 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

You swallowed that hook, TeeGee TeeGee, you have swallowed the Left Revisionist history of Southern Africa by hook, line and sinker... take it from somewhat who visited Rhodesia in the 1970s when it was still a working state. You on the other hand, were never there, while I have . .more primary experience (And no, I did not benefit from Smith's regime...) . .less by JVR on August 17 2009, 23:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

To N Moyo There was no such clause as you state to protect White farmland for 10 years. All land had to be offred to the state first and if the state didn't want it, a certificate of no interetst was issued and the vendor was then allowed to sell to any . .more prospective buyer. You are talking nonsense. I have know all about the donor conferences held in the late 90's. You omit to state that the UK provided 40 million pounds to the govt to buy land for POOR black farmers. Mugabe used it to provide land to his cronies and that is why the UK withdrew funding. At the donor conference, more funding was offered on condition the funds were used to assist poor black farmers onto the the land. Mugabe chose not to take this route. It was only after he lost the 2000 election that he started his violent fast track and illegal land theft.You are trying to misinform readers here. As for my statistics on land ownership, they are factually correct and you are disingenious to again misinform by saying otherwise. Your writing is familiar and I have seen it elsewhere. No doubt you are zanupf and your response is wholly indicative that you write to misinform. You are zanupf so go hang! . .less by D Sibanda on August 18 2009, 00:29 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Stop Politicizing..Start Solving. JVR, you are defending the Rhodesian framework? I am not saying you benefited from it. What I am saying is...you do not understand it. There is no defensible government in the world that is ruled continually by a minority, whose leader says that citizens . .more should have to qualify to vote (Ian Smith). This is simply not defensible. It doesn't matter if the trains ran on time, there was soup in every pot, et cetera. Are you really defending this? It is exactly this idea -- of minority rule -- that has imperialists like Mugabe believing in one party, hating the vote, and feeling free to lord over whomever he pleases. For anyone defending Mugabe, opposition to him is not carved out on racial lines. Please. He gave free pass to Mengitsu. Do you understand the implications of that? My goodness. Let us not oversimplify. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 00:54 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Continued from above... JVR, this is no left-leaning political philosophy. Sorry. I am a libertarian who meets, reads, listens, asks, learns, challenges. Have you studied Mitchell and the peace struck in Northern Ireland? It requires that you see truth in the middle. I am . .more worried that the author is right; horrors may be coming to Zim; and it is not merely about Mugabe. Not merely about Rhodesia. It's about both..and the inability to find truth in the middle together. I pray for a very different outcome. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 00:54 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Do we all understand this. Ian Smith is Robert Mugabe. Robert Mugabe is Ian Smith. Until both sides see that this is nearer to the truth than not, the problems just deepen. The namecalling gains momentum. The battles begin. And who dies who should not? More . .more than any -- children...who have no idea what these conflicts are about. So start there. Ian Smith = Robert Mugabe. Robert Mugabe = Ian Smith. That is more true than not. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 00:58 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Mugabe = Smith JVR, Mugabe = Ian Smith. Doesn't matter if there was a chicken in every pot. He did not believe in the vote (you had to "qualify"...comical). It is indefensible, in my opinion. Sure, the environment is worse now -- far worse. But it is because the . .more framework of Smith and Rhodesia are not beaten down (by everyone) for not allowing people to become true citizens. Mugabe = Smith. Oh, and how can anyone defend Mugabe when he hides Mengistu? This is not a matter of race. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 01:13 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Why Why are my posts being removed -- comparing Mugabe to Ian Smith? by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 01:34 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

You have it wrong Mr TeeGee DId you ever visit Rhodesia Mr TeeGee? Now there are statements like "99% of worked Agri-land in Zim were in white hands", one sees that even today in the news. Consider the following explanation: white Anglos who went to the colonies . .more had the know-how to develop their land, while blacks, living communally in subsistence farming, did not develop their land. This caused the skew distribution of developed agri-land in Zim. Solving this? Shoot the white Anglo farmers like Tekere did, then you take their crops, then disown them, then you chase them out of Zim. That solves the problem. Does it not? The point I am trying to get at is that the whole framing of Rhodesia is fabricated, Left revisionist style, to fit a post-colonial Zeitgeist in the West The main physical fact about Rhodesia is the following: social indicators (education, life span, name it), were improving every year under the population until Mugabe took over. It was Kissinger who commented that living in a unfair but stable state is better than living in a failed state. In the stable state your Joe can organise some ways to better his plight (as Black SAcans did in the apartheid years). In a failed state you die of hunger, murder, bad water, etc. Zimbabweans were way better off under Smith. . .less by JVR on August 18 2009, 02:16 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Actually Cecil John Rhodes=Rhodesia That's Imperialism at its best so stop wishing for those years and please relinquish your ignorant supremacist thoughts. by ole' on August 18 2009, 06:44 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

This Moyo chap is an indicator of how bad things are. Obviously not a total cretin (the man reads Moneyweb after all) but nevertheless a typical African denialist and therefore of little use to mankind, let alone his fellow Zimbabweans. Tragically Zim is going the Rwandan route and the . .more world will stand by because the likes of SA have said it's all ok in Zim. This is a shame on us. In the meantime the likes of Moyo continue to live a life of luxury in SA whilst dishing out their stupid comments on Zim. . .less by Dave on August 18 2009, 10:23 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Gasp. JVR, you're not going to start quoting Kissinger here, are you? Gracious. I hope you can come to see my point that the world isn't merely economic. Let me ask you how you'd feel if I could prove in a court of law that I could better use the land you live . .more on today. Let us then assume the court agrees, and I begin moving in tomorrow. You may think this is a comparison to today's Zim. But I'm talking about Rhodesia. While you are moving off your land -- or rather, are being forcibly moved off it -- and I am taking extra looks at your daughter, tell me how it feels. In the name of "better use of land", I have decided to take legal action against you wherever you move in this world. Your land is my land. My best use is your worst nightmare. When Kissinger comes over for tea, we won't even mention you. This is no way to run a society. Rhodesia was a disgrace from start to finish. Zimbabwe has become a complete disaster now. Mugabe = Rhodesia...and thankfully, the world will not stand by. Mugabe will be out by April 1. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 11:27 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Don't agree with TeeGee There is a big difference between the ruling whites of Rhodesia and the ruling blacks of Zim now. You seem to try to put them on the same level, comparing apples with pears. As the whites created a strong healthy economy that kept all healthy, I would . .more not talk them down like you do. Stop blaming whites for doing a good job! We do not deserve it. In anyway, even if they had given equal rights and land to blacks back then, they were not on any level to do good with it. Even today, blacks with land do not do well and they are constantly trying to blame it on someone else. Maybe, that is the real problem...blacks that cannot take the blame for it when they alone are guilty! . .less by TeeGeeIsStereotype on August 18 2009, 13:52 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The seriously irritating part is: Africans accuse whites of being racist etc, they turn out to be viciously more racist amongst themselves, destroy their economies, countires, health, education etc, all the while blaming in SA case: APARTHEID! In Zim's case, and the rest of . .more Africa:COLONIALISATION! The truth is bare, under these systems, anyone who discalims the benefits is frankly an idiot. Blacks in SA I'm sure wish for the Apartheid days in many ways. Africa in general, just disgusting. Keeps failing, billions pour in in aid, for decades now, and they still keep failing. Time to just cut the continent loose. Let the liberalists deal with it. The rest of the world should just get on dealing with our own bloody problems. Africans are a: Spoilt, Lazy, Arrogant 7 shockingly, RACIST race of people. They keep hiding behind this 'racism' card and have become very adept at playing it. Create yr own civilization, stop milking Europeans for ours!!! Keep complaining about our system of development, do better then if you can as a race!! Whites & Asians have excelled, what have Africans done? Look anywhere globally, Haiti, Africa etc etc! Whites need to move away from Africa in all spheres! . .less by Lionel on August 18 2009, 15:56 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Who cares a damn? Who really cares if Zimboes find a new way to suffer, this time by genocide? They are such a self destructive bunch of racist morons few rational conservatives care whether they survive (after a fashion) or not. They brought this on themselves . .more by chasing out the only people who had the skills and I.Q. to maintain the infrastructure they inherited at Uhuru. Zim revive? Not in my lifetime. Not until they are recolonised by an intelligent peoples. Their only value is as a salutory lesson. Sadly the ANC will not learn from that lesson, and will continue to marginalise those remaining SAns who are the only hope for SA. . .less by Ivan Moor on August 18 2009, 16:42 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

A ZIM GENOCIDE..??..?? What about the SA genocide that will be happening round about 2011 right after the world cup. Now that WILL be a genocide of genocides. by ER on August 18 2009, 16:47 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Gasping mr TeeGee! Mr TeeGee, You failed to answer my question: Have you ever visited Rhodesia? I have, in the 1970s (and was saved by a black Rhodesian tour guide from a malevolent Zambian soldier). I talk as a primary witness. You argue . .more based on revisionist historical claims, generated by Comintern and the Western Left, neither of whom ever has set foot in Rhodesia. And Kissinger's dictum was generated before his rise in politics, at the time he was an Ivey-league academic. It is unfortunately true: A repressive, even a totalitarian regime, is better than a failed state. Anything in fact, even Communism, is better than a failed state. In the repressive state Joe has a chance to work for his freedom. In a failed state he dies from bad water. Which is better? Now I have not written that Smith was an angel - far from it. But social indicators in Rhodesia improved year-on-year (go check, or don't you believe in physical evidence?). Mugabe, on the other hand, is a demon, let loose by the White Western Left. His distinction is rare - he destroyed an entire country single-handedly. Few people have managed that. He ranks right up there with Napoleon, Lenin and Mao, in the level of destruction he wrought. Some clearer thinking and less gasping on your part would be appreciated. . .less by JVR on August 18 2009, 17:37 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The answer remains in the middle. JVR, The beauty in this discussion is that you try to present me as an apologist for Mugabe. If you scroll up and read, you'll see me calling out Mugabe for looting his country, killing his own people for power, and hiding Mengistu (while . .more actually listening to the monster from Ethiopia). Did I stand in Rhodesia? No. By those rules, every historian in the world's history is a fraud. The psychology of this is simple. Rhodesia set the stage for Mugabe to be a hero. Rhodesia set the stage for Mugabe to run a one-party state. If there was so much internal love for Rhodesia, why did Mugabe get 60% of the vote in 1980. Rhodesia set the stage for disaster. Mugabe dealt the blows. . .less by TeeGee on August 18 2009, 21:02 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

TeeGee to equate the murderer Mugabe with Ian Smith is absurd let alone intellectually dishonest. What utter nonsense. Like the students that come to our little village. They are "previously disadvantaged" so they must be given entrance to waste tax payers money. While literate they cannot read and give a clear . .more logically argued presentation of what they have read. Numerical skills are missing. Yet they are given individual tutors by the university. They cannot sustain or develop a train of thought let alone an argument and my lecturer friends are put under pressure to pass these wonderful people who are patently not able to meet the required standard. Do you know that fourth and fifth year medical students are scoring less in tests compared to the class of physiotherapists when doing the same test? Now there is a scary thought. The only reason why the kids are doing physiotherapy is because they were denied entrance to medical school... work it out, it's not rocket science, in a few years time when those qualified doctors hit the street and start practicing... . .less by semaarnet on August 18 2009, 22:23 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Moral relativism will never make it here, Mr TeeGee No Mr TeeGee, I did not think that you were apologising for Mr Mugabe's excesses. I often do apologise. Robert Mugabe is a hero in the eyes of many in Africa. Consider that he screwed the whites, showed a toffee to the West, did exactly as he . .more wanted to, and continues to do so. He is widely admired in the Southern African political landscape, whether you want to know this or not. Smith and Rhodesia did NOT set the scene for Mugabe. He was not an inevitibility in 1980. If you believe that, then you have a remarkably deterministic view of history. That is, that the future is fixed at each point, and that it was fixed in 1980. And the future is fixed from today onwards, no matter what we or what ideology we promote. This is just not so. Mr Mugabe was put into power by the International scene in 1980, including his enablers in Whitehall, and the Lancasterhouse talks. The Western Left promoted the liberation ideology which made him more desirable than Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Smith, BTW, was an angel compared to Mugabe. It is just that your moral-relativist outlook argues an equivalence. Believe me, there are absolute physical truths, such as dead bodies, diseases, bad water, etc. You can go and measure these things, and then make up your mind. Historians BTW, often visit the sites they write about. . .less by JVR on August 18 2009, 23:34 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

I am writing a letter to the French I am writing a letter to the French government, asking them to send Mugabe nuclear weapons. The French have always been so pragmatic about these things. Teegee's attempt to equate Ian Smith and R Mugabe is proof that revisionist idiocy has . .more become the norm. Here's a clue: Who cares whether you have the vote or not, when you are dying from hunger or an easily curable disease? Teegee's obsession with "the vote" is a joke. Democracy is a very recent luxury and one that will not survive any global upheaval or natural catastrophe. . .less by Darwin on August 19 2009, 09:01 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The relativism of moral relativism. It would be nice if we could just wring relativity out of the universe. But JVR and Darwin, what if someone knocked on your door tomorrow, presented a printed version of your comments here, and jailed you for 11 years for criticizing Mugabe? You . .more say...it happens all the time in Zimbabwe right now? You say this is exactly what is so digusting about this regime? You say you should be able to criticize freely whomever you choose? You say there is nothing relative about that! Rewind the clock to 1964 when Ian Smith jailed Mugabe for speaking out against white minority rule. There is NO defending Mugabe. But Smith and Rhodesia created the support for him by jailing so many innocent people. . .less by TeeGee on August 19 2009, 23:34 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

And where does your argument lead? My point is that arguments should target solutions..not winning college debates. So here's a solution. Inside and outside of Zim, there should be a deliberate attempt to spread rumors that Mugabe is out. Resigning. Suffering Alzheimer's. Pick your rumor. . .more But alongside the rumor should come the argument "He tried his best. He was a revolutionary hero." If you don't acknowledge this....the quarrel, the fighting, and ZANU's blind power grab continues. So if you'd like to continue the college debate like too many Zim farmers have that a) Rhodesia was high quality and b) Mugabe is total disaster...go ahead. You are part of the problem. Have been. Will be. . .less by TeeGee on August 19 2009, 23:39 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The answer is in the middle somewhere. They found it there in Belfast. It was right in the middle. No one had a monopoly on being right. Does anyone here? If not, let's start working together to solve the problem, with EVERYONE around the table. I keep bringing up the disarmed Belfast because . .more George Mitchell laid out a blueprint for solving exactly this sort of problem in places like Zim. But so long as ZANU supporters rip white farmers & their supporters....and the same happens in reverse....the troubles will surely surely never end. Who has a better plan? Let's hear it. Until then, I will continue to believe that the answer is in the middle somewhere. . .less by TeeGee on August 19 2009, 23:44 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Smith was right about Mugabe, TeeGee. No Mr TeeGee Relativism is indeed part of the universe, but on an absolute scale Mugabe is worse than Smith by a large margin. I do not what that has to do with the speed of light or electrons in relativity? Smith did not kill he Ndbele, nor . .more did his ministers attack and killed white farmers like Edgar Tekere did. Nor did Smith deal with Joshua Nkomo like Mugabe did. In Smith's Rhodesia, even with its repressive laws on publishing and quelling dissent, all social indicators were improving year on year (go check that out). By the time Mugabe took over from Abel Muzorewa, he found Rhodesia to be prosperous (on the African scale), with a working efficient civil service, with medical services better than most African states, with a huge Agricultural sector which earned Zimbabwe tons of money in exports, not too mention the ability to complete infrastructure projects such as Kariba, and a growing tourist sector. The he fc*k*d it all up. His comrades killed of the white farmers and chased whites out of Zim. Then his fifth brigrade killed the Ndbele. Then his cronies stole Zimbabwe empty. Mugabe's government was and remains a parasite on Zimbabwe. By comparison, Smith's government were a collection of angels. Given the history since 1964, Smith was right to jail Mugabe then. The man was always a menace. . .less by JVR on August 19 2009, 23:46 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

leave us alone funny, rather not, how white men continue to nibble around and interfere with any and every thing african. for he knows the day africa stands united as a native people and energy, white imperialists shall tremble and shake..a predictable return to the . .more medieval era. mugabe was put in power by henry kissinger and lord carrington, high-ranking masonic zionists of the round-table.he is and always has been a muppet of scottish rite masoneria. evidence - one should analyse the gallant display of masonic handshakes and signs by bob and morgan on the first bbc news broadcast since its ban was lifted by the zanu pf govt. i.e black skinned leaders stuck in the white mans R*****. real africans know that ALL western science, religion, politics, stone masonry, education are perveted subversive and dumbed-down hoaxed-subsidies of genuine ancient nubian literary hybrids. when europe was in the dark ages, africans where building educational universities( sahel), energy pyramids( khemet), great architectural structures (great zimbabwe). africans were born masonic initiates BUT we practised MA'AT, which is positive and eco-conscious. the greeks stole the ideas and together with the roman empire personified the negetive practive of masonry - ISFET, which presents suicide,genocide and eco-cide.. leave us alone and keep yo comments up anal vents . .less by lord gambino on November 05 2009, 15:53 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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